TACKLING HOMELESSNESS

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On April 27,2018 a letter to the editor of the Globe and Mail by our Executive Director Peter Tilley was published in response to an article within that newspaper, which appears below.

Ontario’s Cities Need A New Approach To Homelessness (April 25): Janet Mason writes that “Simply building more traditional shelter beds in response to last year’s crisis will institutionalize homelessness in our society. People will be warehoused without access to services or a path out of chronic homelessness.”

Ontario shelters offer many programs that address the root causes of homelessness and enable clients to rebuild their lives. In addition to sheltering an average of 233 men every night and providing more than 1,300 meals every day, at the Ottawa Mission we provide health services, mental health and addiction treatment programs, hospice care, dental services, educational support, job training, second stage housing, spiritual care, and clothing to thousands in need.

Shelters are not “warehouses.” They are an essential part of the solution to homelessness.